I have this collection that I started a while back that is utterly embarrassing to talk about but I figure that this is the one place (my blog) that I can feel that perhaps someone may relate. In any case, if I find a domain that has expired that has a link from some really cool site (ie. TIME magazine website) then I will buy it. Show of hands - who has a link from TIME? (Well, not me even, well I did not earn it, I scurry around like a little domain rat picking up the crumbs.) I don’t use them for anything, it’s not . It’s my personal collection… like a wine cellar for people who enjoy wine.
Yes, I am actually going somewhere with this. ;) In any case, I have these old domains and recently there has been a fairly massive PR drop that has affected some of my sites, and many many many other sites from what I hear. And I know that when you buy an expired domain that has its PR, . But are they supposed to get it back? I am saying this because several of my “gems” got their PR back. I have never worked on building links to these domains, and some were just error pages (until a few days ago, tee hee).
I am wondering if this has to do with the recent change in how PR is calculated. Did they forget to hit the “expired domains” switch when recalibrating the GoogleBot?
I’m increasingly intrigued by the number of women in SEO who incorporate sexuality in their brand identity. Blogs are pink, use sexy images and vernacular, and just ooze “girl power.”
Do I offend? I address this issue in the thread because I almost had a moral responsibility to comment on this “issue”.
Part of my reasoning behind changing my blog address is related to the fact that soon, I want to start marketing myself as an SEO and social media consultant. I have been working on several projects lately, and so soon I will have some proof for my pudding. This is just about the most interesting and exciting field I can think of to work in, and I am really excited at the possibility of getting more opportunities. As search engine optimization and marketing is not something that is truly available in London, Ontario, I am hoping to work towards eventually monopolizing the business in town. Word of mouth has gotten me some business, but I know that it is better to have a site (as then I can optimize and market my own site too!)
So over the next few months, I will be fine tuning the content and design of the site (I wanted to put SOMETHING up so I threw something together this weekend without much thought behind it). I am going to spend the next few weeks checking out 25 high ranking and well designed search engine marketing and social media marketing sites. And then the real fun begins.
Well, when I decided to learn everything and then continue relearning everything day after day in the search marketing industry, I knew that there was no definitive school building or school of thought. Generally, most SEOs learn from others before them and then by testing. Then one day you can say to yourself: Yeah, this is something I could repeat on any site. I could do this for a living. But there is really nowhere to learn how to create your own SEO site analysis. There is no tried and true way of doing this, and very few are really willing to teach you (cause that’s their money).
This is the basic route I took for figuring out how to do proper SEO site analysis:
Check out SEO company sites. They will give a rundown of what they include in their SEO site analysis. Check out at least 20 of these more reputable companies and compile a list.
Search for sample SEO site analysis’ on the web. They are countless out there, just very hard to find. Keep searching and find a bunch of them. Add what they include to your list.
From this, you can compile your SEO site analysis template. Spend a great deal of time on this, and really try to consider everything that might affect search engine ranking on site and off site.
Practice compiling SEO site analysis’ on random websites on the net, do this for friends or family who might benefit as well. Practice, practice, practice.
If you know as much about SEO as you say you do, it should not be too hard to notice all the problems and solutions. An SEO site analysis is common sense if you understand the nature of the beast, but it is good to always check out how others doing this professionally before launching out into your first SEO analysis.
I am sure that this has happened to every search user: you search for a product and you get a site that would never, ever under any circumstances you would provide them with your credit card number. Why? Because the website looks like they really need money in a bad way from the look of their site. So press the back button in your browser and on to the next result to purchase something from a site that clearly that does not need your money and clearly has the class and professionalism that you expect from an internet retailer. According to a [PDF], the most important factor in making an online purchase decision is the website, so this is no doubt a reoccuring phenomena.
I am not advocating make your site an all flash, all dynamic website with no actual text. That is the other way in the wrong direction. But adding some dynamic, rich media capabilities to your site is a very easy step in the right direction. For example, you have no idea how many comments I have about my feed reader button made by , and this is just a creative little .gif button with some movement. This does not mean you have to spend tons of money. Why not try to employ some of the web design students at the local college to help you create your site? But either way, you must be willing to invest in the look of your website. Rich media elements increase user engagement and are a great way to extend a company’s branding efforts, and are key to success these days. People like being wowed by their web experience, and internet retailers are not exempt from this fact.
The internet affords new retailers the opportunity to gain a footing in previously monopolized verticals. By investing not only in some great search marketing, but also in an impressive site that is dynamic and rich with media, these new retailers now really compete with larger companies in the this new “monopoly-free commerce”.
I often see search engine optimization opportunities in other towns, but never mine. So what’s a girl to do? Relocate to follow my dreams? Or give up? Well, relocating is not going to happen, nor is me giving up… Actual solution: Suck it up and somehow find some way to gain a monopoly on the search engine optimization game in London Ontario.
The first thing I notice about this sometimes low-tech and always very conservative city that I live in: SEO is not included in the regional vernacular. It was bad enough telling people I studied anthropology (what’s that?) and now when I try to explain this SEO thing, people are still puzzled (what’s that?). First roadblock: Nobody know was search engine optimization can do, or what online marketing has to offer.
I am not a pillar of the business community and I don’t have that many networking opportunities available to me, I don’t have a great online marketing mentor like (I wish!) and so there is no on to steer me in the right direction. Second roadblock: I am new to the world of business and no one knows me.
Two fairly major roadblocks to me achieving that which I aspire to. But for me, it’s nothing. My solution: Use my big mouth. I talk about search engine optimization with everyone who is willing to listen, which means I may not be fun at a party but damn will you learn something. But seriously, while I may not gab at a party about this, I generally try to mention it to most people I speak to. I give them a glimpse of how it works, and of the potential of engaging search and the internet as part of one’s marketing efforts. Does this work? Heck ya! Not only am I building a buzz about what I can do, but I am also helping people understand (locally) what SEO and internet marketing can mean for their business. Many webmasters are still waiting for traffic to arrive, not knowing that it may not happen without help. When they hear about this SEO thing from one of my now informed unknowing minions, they might think… hmm this may be my solution.
It’s a good start, and it has given me a few lucky opportunities. And as I get more, I can begin to up the ante… maybe even use internet marketing to promote my internet marketing skills. Novel idea, I know.
I was recently approached by a company asking the question: Can search engine optimization get rid of bad press in the search engine results? The answer is both yes, and no.
While you can’t wipe out the pages themselves from the search engine results (some scoundrels claim they can, but that’s another story), you can help your public relations online by getting rid of those results in a roundabout way. You don’t really need them to disappear, you just need them to sink a few pages back where no one will find it. So how do you do that? Good press. Lots of it that ranks well.
Generally where bad press will really affect you is not the keywords for which you are competing in your niche, but for your name itself. As you cannot have more than a few results on the same page for your site, you must then have high ranking content on other sites for your name.
There are two options available to you, and I suggest making use of both of them to increase the likelihood that the bad press will no longer appear in the first few pages.
Create content on another site that uses your company name in the title tag. Press releases are a good example of how businesses might go about this.
Create content on your site and submit it to sites that generally rank high in the search engines, such as Digg. Use your company name in the title tag.
It’s that easy… you can even link to these pages so that they achieve higher results as well. You can also build links, but this must occur in a specific type of directory that gives each site it’s own page generally with the name of your site in the title tag.
And if you really want to spend money, why not get some reviews on blogs with the stipulation that they use your company name in the title of their post.
A is generated by a web crawler that takes content from various sites and feeds and are often created in order to generate ad revenue. Here it is from the horse’s mouth:
I really didn’t think that scraper sites worked, nor made money. Oh but they do! After 5 days of having 20 scraper sites launched and doing daily pings for them all I have been making some cash monies. Im up to about $2.50 a day. The crazy thing is that none of these sites have any backlinks, but some are ranking on page #1 on google for some really really good keywords. You will be amazed of the keywords if I showed you!
Now the guys that make a living off scraper sites make thousands and use automated server side programs to ping and get some backlinks for there scraper sites before they get banned by google. Which is usually 2 months. But I want to see if I can get my scraper sites in the SERPS for a long time, and keep building backlinks for them, so thats the next phase of my testing. Right now I have 20 sites and only about 5 are indexed, the rest should be soon. My goal is to get at least 50 backlinks too all of them using BH methods. Then maybe I can start making some decent cash from this.
There are many different forms of scrapers sites. Here are a few examples of what I mean:
this could be an entire post, usually with no link to your site
this could be a post with links to blog posts, they take a paragraph and link to your post
this could be your entire site, over several pages, all tossed around like salad, could include links but generally will include links to other sites (this may be a case of someone trying to sabotage your site’s rankings)
Why do we hate scrapers so much?
Well, besides the obvious fact that scraper sites steal the content you took time and energy to generate, it could also lead to your content being devalued in the search engine rankings. These could come to be viewed as duplicate content, and though I doubt Seth Godin needs to worry about this, a newer blogger such as myself with a brand spanking new domain could end up ranking lower than a scraper site with an older domain if an entire post were to be taken. Actually, there is little doubt that that would be the case. So, they are a) morally repugnant b) personally offensive and c) screw with my rankings, so we hate them.
But why do we like scrapers?
Every time I write a post about internet marketing or search engine optimization and sometimes about Google too, I will get a few that include a link to my blog. Sometimes the same link on a few different domains. Some people think that , but I think so long as you don’t allow any pingbacks and link back to them, you are in the clear. I have never had a bad effect from a “bad link”. And until they provide me with any conclusive proof, I won’t say no to a link.
But what can we do about scrapers?
If your site or blog has been scraped and you do not want that site to continue to take your content, then I have found an easy enough solution for you on .
In a post about , Paul O’Brien highlights the importance of directory listings and speaks about making use of as much local/regional language as possible. While I would disagree with his statement that “more people are going through directories than directly to your website” and that local directories are more important than website optimization, this post offered some good perspectives about search marketing, in particular with regards to using events as promotion and promoting these events online.
To discuss as well as elaborate on local search engine marketing and optimization, I decided to compile my own list of tips of local search engine marketers.
As Paul suggests, submitting your site to local directories is very important. They will attract some attention and traffic to your site, depending on the care you use when selecting the web directories.
Get links to your site from local suppliers and business organizations. Links from reputable local sites are important and since these are people with whom you already have a business relationship, requesting link would not be unheard of. Do some research first. Find out who has a website, and then find out if they have a links page. If they do, send them an email. It can’t hurt, and these are great for helping to illustrate your integrity online.
Don’t just think local, think regional. If you are in a large city and there are small towns around, make sure you include them if you offer service to these areas. People in smaller towns need things too, and I am pretty sure they have the internet.
This may not be possible for everyone, but it is the best thing I know about local search marketing: if at all possible, make things “seasonal”. Would people search for your site for different reasons during different times of the year? Cash in on this and optimize pages for different seasonal needs. (ie. landscaping, etc in the summer, snowplowing in the winter… depending on your needs; this is the perfect solution for florists who can especially benefit from search marketing on a local scale)
Invest in some Google PPC ads at first - depending on location and competitiveness for the terms, this need not break your budget. This is a good way to jumpstart your search marketing campaign until you find yourself in the top search results.
I like the event idea: a contest is good and easy to promote if you are not in a position to host a real “event”.
Do not discount on-site optimization, this is still important and a big part of a complete search marketing campaign. Lots of people “Google it”.
Local search marketing may be a little less competitive, that does not mean one’s strategies need be any less diverse. There is a lot to be gained from local SEO and online marketing. If you employ every tool in your arsenal, make sure you are prepared for the growth. ;)
There are so many ethical discussions that can arise when speaking of search engine optimization practices. It is interesting that something that at times can be rather technical can be discussed from an ethical standpoint, but thus it is nonetheless that the ethics of SEO has been spoken of from many different perspectives. I have identified a few of the different discussions that occur when speaking of the ethics of SEO.
Business ethics: The SEO consultant’s duty to the client
The first, and most widely discussed ethical discussion centers around the duty of an SEO consultant to their clients, and it focuses on responsibility of said SEO consultant to maintain ethical business practices. When so much about search engine optimization is veiled with mystery and I have even heard it referred to as “a game of Chinese Whispers”, it can be easy for SEO consultancy to become wrought with ethically loose individuals who make false claims or engage in practices that give only temporary results but hurt the site in the long run.
Generally, when one hires an SEO consultant, it would be hoped that they would follow search engine guidelines, but there are many approaches that be have temporary results that eventually may get your site banned from the search engines. There is also the fact that you may pay for search engine optimization, but when you stop paying your site will experience a great drop in the rankings. Take for example one of the .
The common responses to this are bound in the general epithets of ethical business, and the best summary I have found in response to this is the on BruceClay.com.
Is it ethical to engage in search engine optimization at all?
Search engines are built for the user - so is it right to “manipulate the results” to the advantage of the webmaster? This relates immediately back to the approach being used by an SEO - are they engaged in ethical SEO? Are they following search engine guidelines and building links in an organic fashion? So long as “white hat approaches” are being used, it seems to me that search engine optimization really seeks to enhance the user experience. By helping the user find the content that is appropriate for that which is being searched, the SEO is giving value back to the user.
But SEO only has value so long as the content has value. For search engine optimization to be valuable it must be engaged in optimizing content that has intrinsic worth to the person searching for it. Optimizing made for traffic ad pages is not ethical. Optimizing a page for a much searched term that has no relation to the content is not ethical.
Also, search engine optimization is free. Sure, paying an SEO consultant costs money. But on-site optimization and link building is free. So, it is available to all webmasters, and therefore is not a matter of a big company having unequal advantage or monopoly. Honestly, in my experiences, big companies are not making as much use of these as smaller companies. The internet, and search engine optimization in a sense makes it easy for smaller companies to shake up the monopoly which larger companies have on the market.
Search engine optimization and the TRUTH
Recently, I have seen arise regarding the New York Times employing search engine optimization techniques on old articles, some of which contain reputation-destroying and sometimes false information. This is not the first time that this discussion has arisen, this has often been an issue for companies with regards to bad press. Unfortunately, the user will find that which is relevant and if the content is part of public record, the user should be able to find it. And one always has the opportunity to wipe out bad press with good press. ;)
